Besides there are many other forms of mass communication which
can’t be classified in either of the above forms like various forms of dances
etc.

2.Principles governing media:

The experience of freedom of press with the British made our
founding fathers realize its importance and hence it was included in the constitution
in the form of freedom of speech and expression as articulated in the
constitution in Article 19(1) a. This freedom of speech and expression is not
absolute but is limited by scenarios given in Article 19(2) of the
constitution. The article says that nothing in the freedom of speech and
expression shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State
from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on
the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub clause in the interests of
the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly
relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation
to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

India
has been home to terror activities since its independence. Terrorism funded
through foreign land is not new to India. Pakistan has funded terror in J&K
area, while many of its state and non-state actors are allegedly involved in
many of terroristattacks in various
parts of the country, the most talked of being the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Similarly India has many terror outfits operating within its own frontiers
which have carried out terrorist activities in the country.

TV
has been the most important broadcast media with reach comparable to
newspapers. With the coming of cable TV in India, there has been a tremendous
increase in the news channels available to an individual. Though news through
print media comes only a day later, news channels via the broadcast media
provide information 24x7. This enables them to provide real time information to
the public especially those affected by the terrorist attack. But without any
curbs on the amount of coverage, these forms of media can be used by the
terrorists to mislead the investigation agencies and/or the public as was the
case during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks [1]. In the 26/11 attack, the handlers of
the terrorist used the media coverage to tell them the exact locations of the
policemen and advised them about the best way to attack the police. Thus the
thoughtless media coverage, in a way helped the terrorist [2]. Also the goriest
details of the attack were shown virtually non-stop [2].Situations like the Mumbai attack check the
credibility of our media. This incident certainly weakened the media demand to
regulate itself.

2.In Communalism:

India
is home to different communities having different religious sentiments. The
history of India is full of incidents of communal tensions most particularly
between Hindus and Muslims. Broadcast media particularly news TV channels is
often criticized for its non-stop live coverage of these incidents which might
incite the communities to further wreak havoc. Even print media sometimes
thoughtlessly carries messages from the leaders of opposing factions creating
further tensions.

One
particular incident would be the Gujarat riots of 2002. The report of ‘The
Editor’s Guild of India’ on media ethics states that the local newspaper of
Gujarat Sandesh had headlines which
would "provoke, communalize and terrorize people. The newspaper also used
a quote from a VHP leader as a headline, "Avenge with blood". But the
same report also lauded some other local newspapers for their coverage [3].
Broadcast media was heavily criticized for the gory images that were shown
non-stop.

One
other such incident would be the recent Assam riots. The social media and the
SMS were blamed for rumour mongering during the Assam unrest. They were alleged
of misrepresentation of facts and doctoring news which incited the opposing
factions and led to huge migration of north easterners across the country [4].

3.In Naxalism:

The
term Naxalism takes its name from the village Naxalbari in West Bengal where a
group of left radical communist brought an uprising against a local Zamindar in
1967. Today, the Naxal movement is spread across various districts of West
Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka,
Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand
to varying degrees. Our PM while addressing the police force in 2009 even
announced that Naxalism is the greatest internal security threat to India [5]

Media
can be used very effectively to mainstream the naxal areas. Innovation is the
key here. Street Plays can be used to educate the junta about various schemes
of the govt. Recently Home Ministry issued guidelines which apart from
providing SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) to security forces while working
in Naxal areas gave a directive to screen movies on India’s freedom struggle
and national leaders in such areas, which is a welcome move [6].

4.In Cyber Space:

The
problem with cyber security related to massive social media networks is that
there is limited knowledge about the consequences of the snooping which is
carried by various countries in the name of security. Countries like US are not
only snooping on their own citizens but are also able to freely intrude the
privacy of any individual in other countries too. US has the specific advantage
of having the servers of main social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter
etc. within its frontiers and hence in the outreach of their laws.

Experts
have suggested India to build our own social networks like the way China has
its own. Though the reason China built its own social networks was to suppress
public dissent and monitoring online activities to identify troublemakers,
India can follow the same to avoid personal information of millions of
individuals going into the hands of US and other countries. But then again,
this kind of islanding would defeat the purpose of internet.

Also
the media networks are regularly hacked by enemy countries to spread false
information and to recover classified data. Recently hacking of New York Times
and Twitter servers by Syrian agencies was in news. Similarly the US and China
continue to exchange blows in the field of hacking.

5.Possible ways to plug the shortcomings
of media:

1.Sensitizing journalists about the
possible effects of non-stop display of gory images during coverage of riots,
terrorist affected areas etc.

2.Preparing guidelines for the coverage
of areas affected by man-made disaster.

3.Building solid networks and creating a
task force to combat any kind of hacking.

There
could be many more suggestions but then they would grossly interfere with the
freedom of press.

Possible Questions:

1.Enumerate
ways to use social media in combating Naxalism.

2.Enumerate
ways in which media could be used to promote social harmony.

3.Enumerate
ways in which broadcast media can be used to create awareness about terrorism.

4.If
you were to prepare guidelines for media to operate in disaster situations,
what points would your draft include?